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August 1, 2024 - 10:30pm
CNN announced this week it is making a dramatic shift in editorial strategy by shutting down its opinion section on its website. This move, which comes amid wide disruption to the news media, is likely a repositioning of the network from opinion-driven commentary back to its roots as a straight news provider, with a clear separation between the two sections.
The repositioning is being led by CEO Mark Thompson, and is part of a raft of “sweeping” changes that represent a “key milestone in the transformation of CNN,” according to a memo to staff from Thompson published last month.
Chris Licht, Thompson’s predecessor, had carried out a series of high-profile firings and restructuring, including laying off two of the network’s biggest stars in Don Lemon and Brian Stelter, and cancelling the latter’s media-focused show. In this age of misinformation, disinformation and fake news, the move was seen as an effort to reduce the network’s partisan image and appeal to a broader audience.
CNN’s decision is no doubt heavily influenced by the wider challenges facing the media industry. The sector has experienced a wave of layoffs and closures, with many organisations struggling to adapt to the rapidly changing online landscape. In just the past two years, the industry has seen the shuttering of BuzzFeed News and the bankruptcy of Vice Media, as well as layoffs at major broadcast and print news companies. According to Politico, around 500 journalists were let go in January 2024 alone.
It is a tough market and given the ubiquity of opinion, CNN obviously thinks winning the trust of viewers through non-partisan reporting is the best strategic pivot to restore its reputation as a premium news brand. The network will continue to provide in-house commentary, but it will be siloed in its major shows rather than interwoven with coverage on its website and app.
But will this course correction take? CNN has made a series of damaging missteps on some major stories. This includes years-long reporting of unfounded claims that Donald Trump had colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election, a scandal now known as Russiagate, as well as the refusal to properly report on the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.
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SubscribeThe problem is that what is accepted as fact is very much influenced by opinion. To report accurately involves a rather legalistic approach. How many have died in Gaza from Israeli action? Depends who your source is. This involves stating the source and perhaps commenting on the past accuracy or otherwise of the source and even the selection of what to report or pass over in silence is determined by one’s opinion.
All news is biased to some extent, but the major networks have embraced opinion. There’s no reason – other than financial – why CNN can’t return to the model it followed 20 years ago.
This isn’t about reputation. This isn’t repositioning. This isn’t about trust. But I’m sure CNN will spin it like it’s all three.
This is simply a cost cutting exercise. In a world awash with blogs and micro news sites offering every variety of opinion, the big name foghorn opinion writers demand too much money, offer too little variety, and generate too few clicks. It’s not about making more money, it’s about slicing costs.
In just 3 years CNN’s profits have fallen by 40%. This is driven by a seemingly unending trend for consuming less of traditional news output. Warner Brothers, owners of CNN, have seen profits soar in most of its other media units so CNN needs to pay up or it’ll be pushed off. A threat that has focused at least some minds at CNN.
News gathering is more expensive than opinion. It takes boots on the ground.
The flipside of the digital revolution killing traditional news is the staggering opportunity to reduce news gathering and reporting costs. Newspapers (that have survived) have been at the forefront of this, but the big TV news companies have been slower to react thanks to healthier revenues and the need for visual content.
Breaking news is sourced from freelance journalists “partnered” to channel, a blend of old style syndication and wire news but far cheaper than either thanks to a huge oversupply of freelance digital content creators. Combined with AI for curating and editing, a self-managing pipeline of filler news is a growing share of news content.
The inroad of AI has been immense. Sports news articles for example are all largely AI generated except for a handful of big games. Breaking news tickers etc are all AI bots too. All that will be left are a few human hands on the AI tiller. Sure, quality will take a hit, but did anyone notice when AI took over sports articles?
This all requires infrastructure at scale, and this is where CNN etc have a competitive edge and differentiating product offering versus micro news sites.
I think media like CNN could still be profitable today simply by cutting costs..They overpay talent by multiples of 10 and probably have five times more staff than they actually need.
BBC.
There’s no opinion section of CNN really. Matter of fact it’s all opinion.
Well done!
The Dark Side of the Media, indeed!
Mark Thompson? Now that name rings a bell…just can’t place it at the moment…lol…
One of the least impartial people ever to be put in charge of a democratic state broadcaster (BBC).
Completely untrustworthy.
Those trying to be two things at once will fail at both. The flying boat was a sound piece of technology, but it was neither a very good plane or a very good boat. In the air it was unwieldy, heavy, and difficult to fly; in the water it was unseaworthy. So it is, with those who are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold …..
I wish them the best of luck. News gathering is more expensive than opinion though. We need a news network down the centre.
‘Expensive’ news gathering was when CNN was at its finest. I remember the days when news was breaking around the world CNN was the go to station. Opinion writing is everywhere and today and readers ate driven to hear the opinions they want and half or more of the country didn’t want to hear what CNN was dishing out – lots of lies. It’s hard to regain trust.
And FOX isn’t biased?
This article is about CNN. You do understand that an article about something means it is not about some other thing?
Of course Fox is biased, but that’s not the story here.
BBC? Guardian? Daily Express? We can do this all day but as pointed out it is about, in this instance, CNN.
Only a very small number of people truly seek accurate information and parse what they read for signs of journalistic quality. The rest–to the extent they pay attention at all–are only after mimetic reinforcement. The former will congregate at a few pay-walled sites that try to serve that niche. The latter will flit around in the vast digital realms that are designed as self-reinforcing clickbait traps where the foolish swarm to discover, not what is true, but what Taylor Swift or Billie Eilish think is true or whoever else has the most followers at any moment.
CNN and other legacy outlets like The Washington Post are in dire financial straits because of their hubris. They have grown accustomed to a manifest destiny to interpret reality according to their hermetically-sealed orthodoxy. They will not succeed in adapting to the new reality because their ranks are choked with true-believing preachers, journalistic Elmer Gantrys, for whom their outlet is more pulpit than press.
Having (ex-BBC head) Mark Thompson in charge of impartiality is like appointing a Welsh newsreader to safeguard the nursery.
CNN considers its reporting on the Russia Collusion Hoax and the suppression of the Hunter laptop as successes. Leftist wins were obtained in the elections that followed.
Not identifying its opinions as such allows it to hide them better in its reporting.
The goal hasn’t changed, just the method.
Changing a brand image is a Herculean task. It’s like trying to repackage the Devil saying he’s now an Angel, even though his face remains red whilst wearing angel wings.
The disinformation, misinformation, and fake news is created by the intelligence agencies and disseminated by the media.
There is nothing new about propaganda. Distribution of it changes, but it’s easiest to identify when all the usual suspects are saying the exact same thing. Weird, huh?
Most societies that claim to value the freedom of the press seem to do very little to qualify who should actually be entitled to that freedom…
Now where will the CNN-watching lemmings go after being brainwashed by this leftist “news” source? I know people who have CNN blaring on their televisions all day long.
Ketamine is the “horse tranquiliser” – invermectin is the “horse dewormer!” The first one got cool since the days it was called that a lot in the media.